When Yellen tapered, Brics gaped. They thought cheap money was going to last forever. When Wall St and The City attacked the oil price, Venezuela had an attack of the vapours and Russia began hurriedly to top up its already engorged gold reserves. As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes in the Telegraph this morning, ‘They [the Brics] now face the margin call from Hell as the global monetary hegemon pivots’. They certainly do: significant among my ‘7 reasons who Obama should’ve vetoed Congress’s new anti-Putin sanctions’ from yesterday was this one:

‘4. Think about the effect on emerging markets debt: by yesterday afternoon, investors worldwide were storming out of EM bonds. If things get worse, Turkey and South Africa will start to suffer.’

A day later, it’s already happening. Nigeria, Venezuela and other petro-states are facing deadly margin calls and capital flight at one and the same time. The…